Technology is having a major impact on education: the book as a learning tool was a learning tool at the time, just as the chalk and blackboard had a major impact on the way teachers taught their students.
Today, educational schemes are also changing, technological solutions have caused a major revolution in the way students learn, and by extension teaching methodology is also adapting to new motivations and interests.
The incorporation of ICTs in schools involves conceiving teaching and learning processes from new perspectives, a situation that implies new roles and skills for students and for teachers: students become the constructors of their own learning and teachers now have the responsibility to guide students in this process.
But what are the most important skills in the learning process?
These new perspectives force us to pay attention and develop skills that were not so important a few years ago. The aim of education has always been to train autonomous people capable of developing and living in society and, today more than ever, we must train people and future professionals with skills that allow them to develop in a changing and plural society.
Ability to collaborate and work in a team: In the professional field there are very few jobs that are developed individually and in general all projects require collaboration with different professionals so developing this ability is essential. Teamwork allows the generation of knowledge in a collaborative manner, facilitates the development of individual skills, promotes problem solving, and also respect among equals and cohesion towards the same objective or goal.
Ability to communicate, present and convince: Public speaking is a compulsory subject in some educational systems and allows the development of some of the most useful skills for professional development. During the school stage we focus a lot on developing certain communication skills but oral communication often comes second. Knowing how to express ideas in an orderly and coherent way, knowing how to synthesize the information we want to communicate, knowing how to communicate in front of an audience in a dynamic and attractive way, etc. are skills that are not always enhanced and that have a great importance in the professional field.
Developing projects and providing solutions to complex situations: Designing a project from start to finish, going through each of its phases, solving problems in different areas, etc. is what will allow our students to become competent professionals. Working on projects allows us to learn in a globalised way, applying knowledge from different areas and putting very different skills into practice. It is the methodology that will promote the resolution of real life situations by putting their knowledge into practice in a coherent and organized way.
Promoting self-sufficiency and responsibility: Training self-sufficient people is one of the main objectives of education and there is no better way to achieve it than making them competent and capable of solving real-life situations. Proposing case studies, involving them in the administration and management of the classroom, promoting peer support, etc. will allow us to develop the self-esteem, self-sufficiency and responsibility that we expect.
Autonomous construction of knowledge and guided discovery: Learning is a process that is maintained throughout life and therefore we must be able to train students to learn how to learn. This capacity will allow them to build their own knowledge, self-manage the learning process, select the resources they need, overcome their own limits, etc.
We are living in a moment of change and evolution in the way of teaching and learning and the different technological solutions must be at the service of improving education. Currently we receive many solutions both devices, tools, training, resources and management support that can help us in this change.